WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

ByAndy Verity, BBC News Investigations correspondent and Joseph Lee.

Key points

• The group chat, which contained more than 82, 000 messages sent between late February and December 2022, was first uncovered by Belgian investigating magistrate Vincent Guerra.
• The Great Traders of Europe group was reserved for transactions over €5, 000 (£4, 279) and payments were often much larger.
• In one case, payments from Brussels went to militants from the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria.
• They were convicted last year and sentenced to 18 and 8 years in prison respectively.
• In one case investigated by Austrian broadcaster ORF, part of the EBU network, Austrian police raided what they called "the biggest hawala office in Vienna".

Meanwhile, a WhatsApp group chat was applied to send hundreds of millions of euros in cash worldwide, funding organised crime and extremism with no paper trail, an investigation by European broadcasters has identified.

Notably, the 532-member group chat, called "Traders of Greater Europe", was applied to arrange cash transfers throughout borders for their clients, including to British cities such as Birmingham and London.

In practice, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) investigative journalism network, external. It includes the BBC, additionally identified wider evidence of similar cash transfer systems being applied in residents smuggling and drug trafficking.

Notably, the group chat, which contained more than 82, 000 messages sent between late February and December 2022, was first uncovered by Belgian investigating magistrate Vincent Guerra. An investigating magistrate is a judge who examines evidence in complex cases before trial and makes a recommendation regarding whether they should proceed.

Guerra remarked the number of transactions was "staggering" and the network covered "the entire planet". The case began as an investigation into terror financing, but "it became just a drop in the ocean of transactions", he remarked.

Members of the group chat sent messages in Arabic to each other to set up cash payments using the ancient hawala transfer system. Hawala involves a network of trusted funds brokers who can arrange for funds to be sent worldwide without any electronic record or physical transport of bank notes.

For context, the system involves an agreement between two brokers, known as hawaladars, in different locations. One of the hawaladars is paid a sum of cash and the other agrees to supply the same sum, minus commission, to the recipient. The hawaladars agree to settle up all their transactions between themselves at a afterwards date.

Hawala transfers are frequently applied for legitimate purposes, such as immigrant workers sending funds home to backing their families in countries with limited access to banks.

But criminals can additionally take advantage of hawala transfers to avoid the Swift system employed for most international funds transfers, where banks typically flag substantial transactions outside the normal course of business and are required to report any suspicious activity.

Meanwhile, the Great Traders of Europe group was reserved for transactions over €5, 000 (£4, 279) and payments were often much larger. There is no indication that all those participating in the group were involved in handling criminal funds.

Hawala is illegal in plenty of countries, including most of the EU, but is legal in the UK as long as the brokers are registered with Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

In practice, the cache of WhatsApp messages was obtained by the EBU after a 2024 court case in Belgium which convicted six capital launderers, including Abu Adam, the head of the network in Brussels, and his number two, Abu Ahmed.

Belgian police had discovered evidence that the defendants had been sending funds to IS. It was intended to assist the wives of militants escape from detention camps in Syria. When they arrested Abu Adam, they discovered the Traders of Greater Europe group chat on his phone.

Guerra remarked it was like "hitting the jackpot", uncovering the inner workings of a vast, underground system. The phone additionally contained 6, 000 photos of €5 notes showing the serial numbers and 6, 000 photos of identity cards. These details are often applied as unique identifying codes in hawala transactions, and the total number of notes and ID cards suggest Abu Adam had processed at least 12, 000 transactions, Guerra stated.

"This isn't just amateur work; it's professional, and at a level we could never have imagined, " he remarked. "They're bankers with no government oversight."

For context, the EBU additionally identified further gangs throughout Europe using the hawala system for criminal activity. One former funds launderer previously involved in European hawala networks, whom we are calling Frank, informed the EBU he had been involved in transactions totalling a number of hundred million euros.

His first introduction to the hawala system had been at an office in a small town outside Rotterdam, he remarked. There, five or six messengers had arrived with funds in concerning an hour and a half, transferring at least a million euros, he estimated.

"What I discovered out afterwards is that it's not just regarding capital. It's regarding the financing of terror. It's regarding drug trafficking. It's regarding prostitution and all sorts of other crap, to put it nicely, " he stated.

Cases in Austria have additionally disclosed how the hawala system is bound up with individuals smuggling and violence.

In one case investigated by Austrian broadcaster ORF, part of the EBU network, Austrian police raided what they called "the biggest hawala office in Vienna". It was run from a kebab restaurant on a busy thoroughfare and which authorities say was applied to produce payments for individuals smuggling.

As well as torturing and raping a courier who had lost €350, 000 (£300, 000), saying he had been robbed, two Syrian brothers who ran the operation were charged with human trafficking. They were convicted last year and sentenced to 18 and 8 years in prison respectively.

Austrian police and Europol additionally lately dismantled another people-smuggling ring financed through hawala. It authorities remarked had transported regarding 100, 000 residents into Europe over 18 months.

Gerald Tatzgern, who leads human-trafficking investigations at Austria's Criminal Intelligence Service, the BK, informed ORF that torture was a reality of residents smuggling and was additionally employed to maximise profits.

He remarked: "Videos of the torture are then sent to the families, saying that if they don't send another €1, 000 or several thousand euros, then the person concerned – your son, your brother, your father – will suffer."

Payments to stop the torture were demanded through the hawala system, he remarked.

Police commander and Europol liaison officer Quentin Mugg. This person has led a number of money-laundering investigations, stated the hawala system was "the primary money-laundering channel for organised crime".

"Whether the money comes from migrant smuggling, human trafficking, pimping, a grandmother's savings sent as a birthday present to her son, or a Malian working in France who wants to support his family, couldn't care less, " he remarked. "And they'll apply their rates."

Taken together, the developments around whatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.